Thanks allot man, thats what I thought (about the buffalo kill), but I guess other people have doubts. I probably will never be done working on it as you said, and yes I do no everything bout every nook of every cranny of every part on this car, and hopefully everything will work out. Did you build an Ls1 powered Miata?

Good idea, someday I'll probably do this.

 

Jealousy, most likely.

 

Looks fun!!!

 

Thanks allot, it should be. I got the wheel hubs pressed in at my school shop class this week. Not only did I save eaisly upwards of $100 but I learned the process and now have expirence around a hydraulic press. I had to build a bracket to properly mount each knuckle in the 20 ton press, which turned out so well that my shop teacher decided to hang onto it for future use, and turned the whole process into his lesson. Luckily my shop teacher and myself were able to the hub swap while keeping the low miliage bearings intact which saved another $120 or so. Everything turned out real well. The rx7 halfshafts fit so snugly in the MiataRoadster hubs that we were only able to get them about 3/4ths of the way in. When I pickup the half-shaft nuts from a local mazda dealership hopefully on Tuesday, I'll tighten them onto the halfshafts and pull them the rest of the way in. Then, provided nothing goes wrong, I'll take her down the road

Meanwhile, tomorrow, we'll start building the exhaust system. We have a dynomax 2 1/2" od mandrel bent u pipe, 12 feet of 2 1/2" straight pipe, and 2 pypes m80 mufflers. If there's space we'll put in an h pipe, but I don't think there'll be any.

 

a lot of people bashing you... maybe its not meant to come out soo harsh.


anyway... for an 18year old looks like youve accomplished alot! keep on going and prove some people wrong or learn the best way...... ON YOUR OWN, trial and error!

 

Thanks allot man, I will

 

miata looking good nice build

 

Thanks bud

On Thursday night we bled the clutch and brakes, fired her up, and drove her out of the garage under her own power. It felt soooo good. All 7 gears work, as does the clutch, brakes, hubs, halfshafts, and everything else. I only got it up to about 7 mph in our driveway, but it felt like it wanted to leap off the pavement with its copious ammounts of power. My dad and my friend told me it shot out flames at 2000 rpm in reverse. We let it idle for about 20 minutes or so, it runs as consistently as time passes in the day with a solid 40 psi of oil pressure. We aren't gonna take it out until its registered and insured. As 96civic mentioned, now is not the time to rush things. Until then, we have a checklist of minor things to do to it.

-Finnish exhaust
-Make taillights illuminate when the head lights are on
-Install Edelbrock Fuel Pump Relay
-Make ammeter gauge function
-Inflate tires
-Replace clear coolant tube
-Fix the handbrake seize problem
-Insure the gas gauge functions properly
-Get the car on jacks and run it so we can listen for strange differential or other drivetrain noises
-Get proper turn signal bulbs
-Install coilovers
-Install the correct alignment lower control arm bolt, for the rear of the front passengers side. (Take from a 3rd Miata we have sitting out back)
-ReTorque all drivetrain bolts
-Finnish filling up the Differential with oil (almost filled)
-Wire tie the loose wires under the dash

Heres how she stands now
















Favorite Pic







Now I just need my coilovers 2 arrive 2 get that back down lower

 

Nice! I love these cars, I just got through watching "Gearz" on tv and they built a miata like that has a cobra tribute. Had a Italian body kit on it and a ford 302 engine.

Nice work, and I would call it a "sleeper" but that air cleaner gives it away

 

Most definatly agreed...everything else on the car is "trick" why not put on a 4" cowl??? Also why did you carb instead of fuel injection??? One more...in your opinion do you think the 4 lug pattern will hold the torque under full acceleration???

 

I dunno, but I think he needs a piece of rail in the trunk to hold that joker on the ground! What cam did you go with? I would suggest a Torquer V3 in that little joker!

 

Thanks man, people should question what rests beneath the hood of this thing

I like the cowl hood Idea, but I'm running out of Ls1 funds. Next on the list if anything will be a new radiator, followed by a cowl hood, a front lip (I still have some rice in my veins), then a new cam. I was wondering about the four lug strength myself as everything in the rx7 TII drivetrain is four lug; the driveshaft and each halfshaft are held inplace by four bolts. From my research it seems that these rx7's which are heavier then my Miata survive repeated hard launches under 700+ hp and 400+ lb of torque. I'm pretty sure everything will hold up, but we'll soon find out

I'll be in the market for a new cam probably around summer and will most likely buy a used one from someone on here. I want one that has as rough an idle as possible without the requirement of changing the lifters, pushrods, or valve springs. Is that the deal with the Torquer V3? If someone on here could recommend a cam like that to me I'd appreciate it.

We finished the exhaust system over the weekend and it sounds really really good. I can hear how well the engine runs, there's nothing loose, no taps or anything, it just purrs like a kitten. It turned out to be mostly straight pipe aside from a couple of small bends and the 90 degree bends on each side from the headers to the underside pipe which we got by cutting a mandrel u bend in half. The rest of the bends we created using the straight pipe. We cut out the section on the inside of where it had to be bent while leaving about in inch uncut on the outside. Then we closed the gap to form the bend and welded the gap. We did it so that there aren't any kinks or crimps, the entire system is 2.5" on each side...aside from the Sanderson exhaust flanges which are 2.25". Then we hung it in 3 places on each side, and clamped it in the necessary spots. The two pipes exit about a foot apart, right under the license plate. My dad thinks it looks like a Corvette, I think it just looks real cool. Its still pretty loud with those pypes m80's and I can tell it will be really loud at wot, but its now mellow enough to drive by a cop at 2000 rpm without him or her giving a second thought. Thanks again for the input guys, Happy Holidays!!

 

If you know anything about fiberglass you could do it on your exhisting hood for penny's on the dollar or maybe your really good friend is in auto body classes???

 

your not gonna get out of changing to a stiffer spring or hardned push rods. nature of the beast. bust a spring, loose a valve, then a piston, then a motor maybe, not worth it, when a set of springs can be had for 300 buck and a set of rods for another 100 or so.

 

I was thinking about that, problem is I don't know anything about fiberglass and I'd rather not learn on a hood scoop that probably wouldn't come out that aesthetically pleasing.

Your right, when I do the cam swap I'll upgrade the valve springs and push rods.

Well the morning before Christmas my Tein coilovers arrived. My dad wanted my low miliage struts for his higher miliage Miata so we put my struts on his, his alignment bolts on mine (in better condition then mine), my alignment bolts on his, and my Teins on mine. After 3 different height adjustments I got it where I wanted it. Sits pretty low now, but not too ridiculous.

Both cars needed alignments bad. I thought about it, we had done EVERYTHING else ourselves, why not the alignment. The previous owner of my Miata had a four wheel alignment done about two weeks before I bought it, so aside from alittler extra camber from being dropped, the rear was right on target. A little extra camber will help it handle better anyway. The fronts however were all off. With my new alignment bolts I dialed in a little bit of camber on each side to match the rear. To adjust for toe in we measured from the same tread on the front and rear of each tire. We turned the tie rods in half turn increments on each side until we got it to 3/32" wider on the front then in the back (slight toe out). We also did this to my dad's Miata.

Then it was timewe put the plates on it, made sure the insurance and registration cards were in the glove box and drove it out of the garage and onto the street. The steering felt nice, stiff and responsive. It pulled straight, and the brakes felt real good. It had immense low end torque, and all six gears felt nice and smooth to shift into. I kept it nice and easy until I got on it once that car is FAST and handles superbly. My temp gauge got up to 180 when I turned on both fans. It quickly dropped back down to 160. I guess the radiator will work fine for the time being. Also the oil pressure went down to about 20 at idle.

The one problem with our wheel alignment was that the steering wheel was turned very slightly to the right when the car was going straight. After we brought it back I loosened the nut on the steering column to pull the hub and wheel off but it wouldn't budge. I built a hub puller that bolts to the hub with one bolt in the middle that screws down and pushes the hub off. I turned the hub and put the wheel back on. Now the wheel is straight when the car is going straight and all four wheels are aligned.

Unfortunately I won't be able to drive it again for a little while as there's a whole bunch of salt on the roads and its too cold to rain. Also my digital camera has been giving me problems lately, so on the next update I'll borrow my friends to get some updated pictures on here.

Thanks again for all the input guys

 

Going to need a monster cowl hood to clear that air cleaner.

 

+1 for the cowl hood idea. other then that looks nice

 

looks awesome man, do it the way you want to do it, if it breaks, then you can try something different. either way, it is a lot better than most would have been able to do at the age of 18. Great job! need a video of it doin a nasty burnout.

 

I know guys that would look cool, but right now I have another more pressing problem

Thanks I'll get some videos soon. Unfortunately, something did break. Yesterday we had a rain storm that washed all the salt crud away, so naturally we decided to take her out. Apparently, last time we were only giving it like 3/5 throttle, because this time I really nailed it and it pulled twice as hard as before and broke traction like a fwd turbo Honda on stealies in 3rd gear. We were over in a neighboring town when the oil pressure dropped to about 7 which got us a little nervous. However, it went back up when I gave it a little throttle so I didn't think too much of it. As I was entering an on ramp, I got on it again, but it didn't pull right so I knew something was up. We looked down to the oil pressure gauge for an answer to see an unsettling reading of zero. I immediately pulled her over to the shoulder and cut it. We're triple A members, so within a half hour a flat bed came and hauled us all back to our house. It wasn't running for long at low oil pressure, and it ran for under three seconds at zero so I don't think I did much damage if any.

I'm almost positive I need a new oil pump. Should I buy a Melling standard volume? High Volume? Stock Ls6? What do you guys think? Thanks in advance for the help.

 

Ported ls6 is my suggestion. Not expensive and you can easly port it yourself. This is a perfect time for that new cam too!